Night had come to Archanis Station, but soon there would be light. The cavalry was on their way, and the advanced squad was already in place. It had been ten days since Archanis Station had fallen, time enough for the Vaadwaur to assert their supremacy, to use force and terror to methodically root out resistance. A testament to the efficacy of their methods was they’d had not so much as a single significant disorderly act from the station’s denizens in nearly two days, and in that lull, they had relaxed, unaware that a special operations team now walked among them.

Samira Sasori, the sleuth of Kyban, meandered down the promenade, mumbling quietly to herself. The Vaadwaur soldiers guarding the exterior of Dr. Vale’s community health clinic saw her, but they thought nothing of her. She was petite and pathetic, just another scraggly drifter with an untreated mental disorder. What threat was she to them?

Up in the rafters, Lieutenant Camille Anderson sighted in her scope. This would feel good. For days, she’d resisted the urge. She couldn’t pull the trigger without good purpose, not when the price was ten of theirs for every one of the Vaadwaur’s. But soon, they’d have that purpose, and the Vaadwaur would be too busy with them to turn their weapons upon the civilians once more. On the other side of that door, once a place of healing, sat a large contingent of security officers sequestered by the Vaadwaur to prevent rebellion. Any minute now though, she’d set them free, and the battle for Archanis would begin.

Just down the hall, tucked behind the bulkhead of a jeffries tube, Lieutenant Commander Kehlani Koh and five members of her team from the Diligent waited for the call. Commander Kris Eriksson was there too, the station’s security chief insisting on being part of the motion to free his people. She’d been happy to take the extra hands, but she worried they might be going short on the other teams, the ones heading for the command center and the computer core.

“Narrow beam transmission from Polaris,” came the voice Ensign Maya Ortega over their earpieces. The young diplomatic attaché was no shooter, but tucked away in an alcove adjoining the waste reclamation plant in the lowest levels of the station, she was the voice in their heads keeping them all in sync. “One minute out.” She would also be the one to press the detonator, setting off a series of explosives that Samira Sasori, Camille Anderson and Kris Eriksson had planted in key locations across the station over the last few days. She just prayed there wouldn’t be any collateral damage.

Several dozen levels below the promenade, the Vulcan sharpshooter heard the call from her position in a darkened science lab just off the main computer core. Just like the lieutenant in the rafters of the promenade, T’Aer was sighted in, but in her case, her muzzle was lined up with a wall. The duranium surface would be no problem though, not for the modified TR-116 and its munitions microtransporter, nor for the exographic targeting sensor over her eye. She’d kill them through the wall, opening the way for Chief Shafir and her colleagues from the Lucre.

The final team, led by the aged Captain Kurayami Kioshi, and composed of Ensign Evelyn Luna, Dr. Lisa Hall, Commander Robert Drake, Lieutenant Commander Keaton Ryder, and three of Ryder’s officers from the Polaris, sat crammed in an unmoving turbolift. Ensign Luna had stalled it just two decks and three junctions away from the command deck, and she would start it again when the time was right.

Just above them in his office that adjoined the command deck, Vice Admiral Alex Grayson was living through hell, coughing up blood as the Vaadwaur took another pass at him.

Thwack.

The baton hit him hard from behind, and this time, he felt a crack, at least one of his ribs breaking under the impact. 

Again. 

It’d been like this for days. 

They’d break his body, but before death could set him free, they’d send in Dr. Anna Vale or Dr. Adak Ormid to fix him up. He was too valuable to them to allow to die. As sector commander and a member of the Starfleet admiralty, he’d been a treasure trove of intelligence, and he still had more in his head that they wanted.

“Tell us, little man! You know them!” the Vaadwaur commander standing over him demanded. “What would you do if you were in their shoes?” The Blackout boundary spinward and rimward of them had fallen, and he felt exposed. He wanted to know why. What were they planning?

“What would I do?” Vice Admiral Grayson grimaced through the pain. “I’d send you straight to hell.”

That was it. The Vaadwaur commander had enough. He didn’t nod for his guy to hit the old man again. No, this aged admiral had finally outlived his usefulness. And so he raised his disruptor and pressed it to the man’s forehead.

Vice Admiral Grayson felt the cold tip of the pistol, but he didn’t care. After ten days of this, he had nothing left to give. He was broken. He was done.

But then the door hissed open.

“Sir, we have a problem. You’re needed on the command deck.”

Maybe now was not the time, the Vaadwaur commander concluded. It would be so satisfying to kill this man, but he’d take another pass at him first. Maybe kill another one of his senior officers in front of him. That seemed more effective than any beating had been. “We’re not done here, Alex. I’ll be back.”

And then he was gone, leaving Vice Admiral Grayson with the guard.

Once on the command deck, the Vaadwaur commander could tell something was wrong. The place was abuzz, his people scrambling to and fro. “Report?”

“We just picked up two ships on approach, bearing three three six, warp 9.99 at 1,800 AU. Station identifies as a Vesta class long-range explorer and a Gagarin class heavy escort.”

“Why didn’t we see them earlier?!” the Vaadwaur commander grumbled. At that distance and speed, the Starfleet vessels had managed to get within 0.3 light years of Archanis Station without being detected. That was completely unacceptable.

“They’re running dark and using Gorion VIII’s shadow to conceal their approach.”

“They know this place and how it works,” the Vaadwaur commander sighed. “Send an Astika and three Manasas out to meet them.” That would be more than enough to crush an explorer and her support ship, and it still left them a strong reserve of ships back at the starbase.

“Sir, I’ve got another one on approach, bearing one four zero, warp 9.995 at 0.7 light years. It comes back as a Glenn class heavy cruiser.”

“How many of these blindspots do we have?!” the Vaadwaur commander snapped. “Get the other Astika and a couple Manasas out on that vector.” He’d keep the Gaul class dreadnought here beside the station, along with the remaining four Manasas, but still, he was not happy. He didn’t this one bit. “I need to know what else is out there. Run a couple fighter patrols out to the edge of the system for clearer lines of sight.”